The Punch Brothers' prolific
tendencies keep the band on the road, which is fortunate for Birmingham; their
Saturday night show with Loudon Wainwright III at the Alys Stephens Center will
be the band's second time here in 14 months. The group, which is fronted by
former Nickel Creek mandolin player Chris Thile, is touring in advance of their
third album release. "Who's Feeling Young Now?" is out Feb. 14 on Nonesuch
Records, and bass player Paul Kowert says they'll be sure to preview a few
tracks from that release.

The evening begins with Wainwright's
set at 8 p.m. Ticket prices begin at $29.50, and are available at alysstephens.org.

Birmingham Box Set: Though this is only the band's third
official release, you've already evolved a good bit, though the changes from
"Antifogmatic" to "Who's Feeling Young Now?" are less
dramatic than between "Punch" and "Antifogmatic." How did
the process of writing and recording this album vary from that of
"Antifogmatic"?

Paul Kowert: I think we hit our stride a little
better, finding our way to being the most direct and factual, musically. We're
in the process of writing together. "Antifogmatic" was our first attempt at
that, and we got a little better at it, kind of finding what each of us can do
a little quicker and doing a better job of it

Parts kind of came quicker in some
circumstances. We've certainly gotten better at hearing what we can do and
knowing where to go when that happens.

BBS: I know each of the band members
listen to a variety of music, and it seemed to me that those influences came
through even more strongly on this album. Would you say that's so?

PK: Hard for me to know—I wouldn't doubt
that at all. We're really proud of how it turned out. Our approach has kind of
crystallized a little bit. With the first track, "Movement and Location," some
of that came together really fast. We had an approach of trying to write really
direct, practical music on this record, leaning toward things that hit us on a
visceral level. That's really what we care about and like to listen to. That's
what we think good music is. I think you hear that more on this album than
previous albums.

BBS: You'll perform here this weekend, so
I assume the Birmingham audience will get a sneak peek of "Who's Feeling
Young Now?"

PK: We are sure to play at least a few
songs from the new record. We usually play something from all of them—maybe not
from "Punch." You'll definitely hear some songs on the new record.

BBS: How has that material been received
on tour thus far?

PK: I think very positively. We've kind
of gone through a few different cycles of playing things we wrote for the new
record, or things we wrote for the new record and didn't end up recording. ...
It's music that translates really well from the way that we perform. We've
gotten good reception.

BBS: Thile collaborated with Josh Ritter
on two songs. How'd that come to be?

PK: We're fans of Josh Ritter. He's a
great storyteller and lyricist, songwriter in general. We had the chance to
open for him in Boston. Thile just got in touch with him and they kind of
collaborated on some lyrics on a couple songs. The music is all ours but Josh
writes some really great lyrics to a couple of songs. We're grateful to him for
that. It was basically a collaboration that existed between Thile and Josh. We
liked what he added to it.

BBS: Y'all have been incredibly busy in
the past year, both with the band and with individual projects. How do you
collectively balance all of that?

PK: It's a good thing to be busy if
you're a musician. Pickles — that's what we call our banjo player — he did a
record called "Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail" that came out a few months ago.
And he had Critter playing, and our fiddle player produced the record. Thile
and I guested on it for one track each. It was a push — we all just stay really
busy. Thile always has other projects going on.

It's good for all of us to have
these side projects because it lets us come back to Punch Brothers with a
different perspective and with some other experience. I think it really
strengthens us as a band to have time away from each other. But for all of us,
Punch Brothers is the main thing.

BBS: That's often the case in any kind of
relationship—when you're living a full life, you seem to bring more to the
relationship.

PK: Yeah, that's a good point. As
musicians, just growing and relating to each other as a band takes a certain
amount of outside influence. ... As a band of five people, you can't have
everything you have to offer happening all at once. It's good for each of us to
have an outlet for parts of our musical selves that are less used in Punch
Brothers. Then we come back to Punch Bothers with a new perspective.

BBS: You've also toured and performed
with some impressive names — Paul Simon, T Bone Burnett, and you'll be sharing
a bill here with Loudon Wainwright III. How does working with these folks
affect the individual shows?

PK: Sometimes we tailor our show to the
audience we're expecting or that we see. A lot of times we end up sitting in
[with the other performers]. One of our favorite things is when we co-bill a
show or sit in to get to play some of their music with them. Basically anyone
we've opened for with we've done that. Amos Lee in Europe, Josh Ritter. Usually
some sitting in happening, collaboration. As far as our set goes, we consider
who we're playing for.

People who see us multiple times
notice that the show is different every time and each song is different. Sometimes
we're playing a song really well and we want to be sure that we play it, so
we'll rearrange [the set list to be sure we play it]. We want to put on the
best show for the audience and also for ourselves.